Bulletin: Thone recall fails

Kevin Doyle/kdoyle@cnc.com

Tuesday

May 22, 2007 at 12:01 AMMay 22, 2007 at 10:13 PM

The five-month effort by a citizens group to recall first-term District 1 Municipal Councilor Michelle Thone ended Monday when the minimum 30 percent of the district’s 2,071 registered voters did not vote in a special election as required by the Town Charter.

In order for the election to be deemed valid, 622 district residents needed to cast their ballot. When the polls closed at 8 p.m., 550 votes had been tallied with 519 favoring Thone’s removal from office. Thone, who is the council’s vice president, will now finish out her term.

“I’m relieved that it’s over. This has been such a distraction and there is so much work before us as a council,” Thone said Monday night.

“Over 70 percent of the voters in the district didn’t dignify this with their vote. People saw if for what it was – a subversion of the electoral process,” she said.

Thone said she has not decided whether to run for re-election in the fall but added, “I will say I’m not ruling it out.”

Members of the Committee to Recall Michelle Thone acknowledged that reaching the 30 percent requirement had been a concern all along.

“We didn’t do a good job getting the vote out like we wanted to,” said David Frick.